Annalie got to go trick-or-treating twice this year. Once on Halloween night, and once the Friday before Halloween at our church’s trunk-or-treat festival.

We’d never done trunk-or-treating before. It was interesting. People at our church really get into it and have fun. There were about a dozen cars and minivans in the parking lot, all decked out and decorated with different themes, handing out candy. One really cool one I didn’t get a photo of was manned by Maleficent, the evil stepmother from Sleeping Beauty the evil queen from Snow White the wicked fairy godmother from Sleeping Beauty [see the comments for an explanation of all these edits], complete with magic mirror and the choice between a “poisoned” apple and a more traditional treat. Maleficent was really hamming it up with her character, and the kids all loved it.

There was a little carnival going on at the same time, with games set up in the school gymnasium and tickets and a prize room. Annalie was a little too shy to play most of the games, but she got her face painted with a butterfly. And then we played the lollipop tree (where you pick lollipops out of a foam tree and win tickets or not based on the color on the tip of the stick) a bunch of times, so Annalie got to pick a couple of toys from the prize room.

And then she was ready to go home. Our first Halloween trunk-or-treating experience was brief but fun.

There is a family at my parents’ church, Tim & Melissa Lorang and their toddler son Noah, for whom tomorrow—July 28, 2010—will be a day of great joy and greater sorrow. Their daughter Amelia Grace will be born via C-section, but Amelia has anencephaly. Anencephaly is a congenital defect in which the baby’s brain, skull, and scalp fail to develop properly, and it’s always fatal. When she is born, Amelia will be missing most of her brain, and likely the top of her skull and scalp. Amelia, like all babies born with this defect, will most likely die within a few hours of her birth.

Melissa is one of those people whose faith is so strong and who is so full of grace that it puts the rest of us to shame, if you know what I mean. She has been blogging about her pregnancy, her daughter, her grief, and her faith for the past few months. Tomorrow is the day they meet their sweet baby girl, and likely the day they will have to say good-bye to her.

Amelia Grace: her first name means “a work of the Lord.”

I don’t really know the Lorangs (Tim is about five years younger than I am, and his family didn’t start going to my parents’ church till I was almost graduated from high school) but I’ve been reading Melissa’s blog and praying for them. Tomorrow, I will be praying for them harder than ever as they grieve the loss of their daughter. If you are a person who prays, could you take a moment to say a prayer for them too?

UPDATE: Amelia Grace Lorang was born at 9:02am this morning, and passed away at 11:00am. RIP.

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Day 4 – a cabinet full of origami

Taken on the landing of the staircase at my cousin T’s house. I think these are all from a page-a-day origami calendar that her kids had a couple of years ago.

This is representative of the whole house, in that six kids ages 4 to 16 live there, and evidence of their creativity and curiosity is everywhere. In addition to this cabinet full of origami, there is a door in the upstairs hallway that is papered with pages from a word-a-day calendar, and the shelves above the kitchen sink hold framed photos as well as kid-produced art of varying levels of competence, not to mention that there is usually at least one kid in the middle of an art project at the dining-room table or baking pie or cookies in the kitchen.

T and her husband do a great job of involving their kids in many aspects of taking care of their home, and T incorporates many of the kids’ art projects into her decorating both permanent and seasonal (on this visit, I particularly loved the painted-white, glitter-covered pinecone in a Christmas cupcake paper on the counter in the downstairs bathroom, clearly some child’s preschool holiday craft). If I scattered Annalie’s art projects around our house I have the feeling it would just look cluttered, but at T’s house somehow it all works in the most fantastic way. Their house is beautiful and warm and welcoming, a house full of kids and activity and a little bit of chaos and a lot of love. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

Day 145 for Troy

As long as I’m posting my 7 Days photos, I might as well post my photos for Troy too. And yes, I realize this is very similar to Day 139, but I don’t care.

Matching candy-cane pj’s and cute kids trump repetitive photos any day.

Day 5 – Silver where? Wheatfields, of course.

Joe, Kassie, Katrina and I were all very relieved when the forecasted ice pellets and freezing rain did not materialize that morning. We just had plain old rain, which we were quite happy to brave for brunch at Wheatfields with good friends.

We took up two long tables in the otherwise-deserted sundeck, which was nice when we started taking silly self-portraits with our silverware (the day’s theme was silver.

I think the common characteristic among all my friends is that we make each other laugh, and these friends are no exception. We laughed and laughed that day, in between geeking out over cameras and tickling kids and debating the presence of apricots in the delicious quiche. It was awesome.

Joe’s Day 5 photo
Kassie’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Pole Girl, Dip Punk, Betho and me
Katrina’s Day 5 photo and her blog post Fun with Friends

Day 146 for Troy

Annalie decorated the mirror with two sets of clings…one is a Nativity set and one is Peanuts. They go together, right?

Day 6 – almost done with the Babette

I’ve been working on this blanket for my niece AK for a couple of months. It’s the wonderful Babette Blanket pattern. I used the colors of the aurora borealis as inspiration. (That gives you a really good hint to her first name.)

I’m about two-thirds done with stitching the squares together. I hope I am able to finish the rest before we go back home. Then I’ll wash and block it. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out so far.

Day 147 for Troy

At Christmas Eve worship tonight, my parents’ pastor announced that the Christmas Day service was cancelled, since we’re supposed to get 12-15 inches of snow tonight. I’ve only known him to cancel services two other times in 30 years, but it looks like he made the right decision because while we were in church it snowed about three inches. My mom took this photo in our front yard, You can just about see the snow fort my dad and Annalie made earlier today.

Merry Christmas to you all! May your holidays be filled with good surprises, kids in matching jammies, yummy food, and joy. Especially joy.